Meta overview
In order to understand how to use Hexerator, we'll establish some basic concepts.
What is the Meta?
When you open a file with Hexerator, you're opening a raw binary file. The raw binary file itself doesn't dictate how a hex editor should display it, or how to interpret the raw binary data contained within. Instead, it's up to the user to figure out all that stuff. The Meta contains all the information on how to meaningfully interpret and display the data. It can also contain various notes and discoveries made by the user.
Meta components
Regions
Regions are the most basic metadata. They are used to mark regions of the file that are meaningfully different. For example an executable might contain a header, executable code, and data. These could be marked as 3 different regions in Hexerator.
The default region is the entire file.
You can select Meta->Regions from the top menu, or press F8 to bring up a list of regions, and create
new ones.
In order to create a new region, you first need to make a selection.
Perspectives
Perspectives tell Hexerator how to align the data, by setting the number of columns used to display them. Each perspective has an associated region.
You can press ctrl + Left and ctrl + Right arrow keys in View mode to adjust the column count
for the current perspective.
Additionally, perspectives have a special mode to flip the row order, to display rows upside down. This is useful because sometimes things like images are stored upside down in binary files. Weird, I know.
You can select Perspective->Perspectives from the top menu, or press F7 to bring up a list of
perspectives, and create new ones.
Views
Views are the windows through which data is viewed and interacted with. Each view has an associated perspective. Views that share the same perspective scroll together. So if the hex view of a perspective is scrolled, the text and block views scroll along with it.
Currently there are 4 basic types of views
- Hex
- Decimal
- Text
- Block
You can right click a view and select View properties... to look at and change the properties
of a view.
You can also select View->Views from the top menu, or press F6 to bring up a list of views,
and create new views.
Layouts
Layouts are groups of views that are displayed together. You can create multiple layouts that show different places in the file in different ways.
A layout consists of one or more rows, and each row can contain one or more view. Hexerator will try to lay out the views in a sensible manner, based on the row and column they belong to.
The default layout is a Hex view, a Text view, and a Block view side by side.
You can select View->Layouts from the top menu, or press F5 to bring up a list of layouts, and
edit the current layout, or add new ones.
Bookmarks
Bookmarks are places of interest in the data at various offsets. They can also additionally be assigned a data type, which allows them to show a handle to the data at their offset, which shows the value and allows it to be edited.
You can select Meta->Bookmarks from the top menu, or press F9 to show a list of bookmarks, and
add new ones.
You can also right click a location in a view, and select Add bookmark.